Thursday, March 09, 2006

Last Word

Here’s the last post on this issue.

When the Bible says that God does not change, it usually means that God can be trusted to keep his word or that his character is unchanging. The idea that God cannot change in any way does not come from the Bible but from Greek philosophy.

But here’s the important point we’ve been building to throughout this too-long discussion: Even though God is the same today as he was in the time of Abraham (for example) our understanding of him continues to improve and develop.

Do we think that the universe is different today than it was in the time of Newton? Or course not. But our understanding is very different.

It is foolish (and somewhat arrogant) to think that any generation has discovered everything there is no know about God. Just because we have not received any new scriptures does not mean that our understanding of God cannot be refined.

Certainly any “new understanding” must be judged against the Bible. And many “new understandings” have been little more than repackaged heresy. But we shouldn’t be afraid to take a fresh look at the scriptures.

While God has not inspired any new scripture, we do have a more accurate Bible than our great-grandparents had. We also have much more information (from archaeology and other sources) about the language and culture of the time of the Bible.

While this is the last post on this topic, I will be happy to respond to questions or comments here.